Jenner brings over 25 years of technology experience from Splunk, Salesforce, and Microsoft

Today, monday.com Ltd., a work operating system (Work OS) where organizations of any size can create the tools and processes they need to manage every aspect of their work, announced the appointment of Petra Jenner to its Board of Directors, effective April 1, 2024. 

Jenner has over 25 years of wide international experience in the digital space. In her current role as Splunk’s Senior Vice President and General Manager for Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), Jenner oversees the company’s go-to-market strategy and growth in the region. Prior to Splunk, she held various executive positions of increasing responsibility during her six-year tenure at Salesforce and leadership roles with Microsoft, Checkpoint Software, and Pivotal. At Salesforce, Jenner was responsible for the transformation of the company’s business in Europe, which became one of the fastest-growing regions during her tenure. Based in Munich, she studied International Management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in Singapore and holds a Masters Degree in Business and IT.

“We are pleased to welcome an accomplished technology veteran of Petra’s caliber to monday.com’s Board of Directors,” said Roy Mann and Eran Zinman, co-CEOs of monday.com. “Her expertise in scaling businesses, passion for digital transformation, and familiarity with future work models are powerful assets to both our Board and company. We’re confident that Petra will add invaluable perspective as we take on our next stage of growth.”

“I’m honored to have the opportunity to serve on monday.com’s Board and help deliver on the company's mission of running all core aspects of work,” said Jenner. “It is an exciting time to join the monday.com team, especially with the vast opportunities on the horizon as the company continues to expand upmarket. I look forward to contributing my expertise in delivering innovative solutions and scaling businesses to further grow monday.com and deliver enhanced value for shareholders.”

Collective Audience, Inc., a leading innovator of audience-based performance advertising and media, has launched AudienceDesk™ powered by AudienceCloud™.

The powerful new AdTech and MarTech solution brings together publisher supply, brand and agency demand, together with unique audience data, into a unified cloud platform.

AudienceCloud’s AI-driven capabilities and data infrastructure empowers users with a next generation technology stack. It includes applications that enable them to easily and cost-efficiently build, reach, connect and monetize using the singular AudienceDesk interface. The easily deployed AudienceCloud API can also be used to integrate the technology into existing third-party platforms and environments.

AudienceCloud’s groundbreaking modern infrastructure is built with the most advanced, customizable modules designed to take on today’s new cookieless, audience data-driven advertising world. It introduces the industry’s first open audience-based ecosystem for digital advertising and media with powerful features and benefits:

• Full-stack ad server with pre-bid programmatic and third-party DSP integrations that serves Collective Audience’s unique ad units or any other ad network.
• Cookieless targeting with semantic exact match keywords and phrases.
• Unique GenAI enabled, attention-based, conversational performance advertising units that are customizable to drive any type of transaction in the ad unit, empowering publishers and brands with the ability to collect zero party audience data via ad campaigns, surveys or quizzes. Try live demo here.
• API integrations to and from any environment for any of the AudienceCloud modules.
• Low-code integration provides publishers real-time semantics and customizable end-to-end ad infrastructure in just minutes, so they can manage their entire ad stack on a single platform.
• Publishers and brands are empowered by their data being generated with the ability to gain insights, create audience segments, and route to their DMP, CDP or CRM — all in real-time.
• Transparent revenue for publishers and advertisers—no more separate charges for absorbing, programmatic, creative or data. Increases inventory ROI with a clean direct supply path.

The AudienceDesk interface gives publishers and advertisers a single unified trading desk to create, forecast, serve, monetize, measure and optimize with greater user engagement, higher brand recall and more precise user data:

• AudienceDesk Creative Studio™ self-serve environment delivers vastly more efficient creative for a 2.9x brand lift.
• Customizable interactive templates with dynamic creatives that connect to external catalogs.
• GenerativeAI solutions for publishers and creative campaign managers.
• AudienceDesk Ad Manager™ enables agencies and brands to buy ad space on all collective sites.
• Publishers can easily enrich content, capture data, and build their own advertising or audience survey campaigns.
• Distributed functionality within third party AdTech platforms, DSP, SSP, DMP, tracking and others.

“It is time for change,” stated Collective Audience CEO, Peter Bordes. “Increasing complexity and costs has caused fundamental, far-reaching problems for AdTech and the digital media world. And it’s just not one thing that needs to change, it’s everything. So, we have pulled apart, rearchitected and built up from a new foundation a solution that solves the many challenges and roadblocks we face.

“AudienceCloud creates direct connections that allows us to finally automate the entire supply path process, and empower publishers and advertisers with next generation performance advertising units for the attention economy. The intuitive and easy-to-use AudienceDesk interface provides the unmatched ability to generate meaningful zero- and first-party data from their audiences in way that unlocks tremendous value.”

The pioneering live chat firm launched 15 years ago has become Blazeo, a 400-employee global platform, having optimized how 35,000 small businesses capture and qualify leads, set appointments and sign retainers, while embracing 24/7 live human agents in an era of over-automation.  

Blazeo officially announced today that is has changed its name from ApexChat, reflecting its growth from a pioneering customer service-focused chat firm into a 400-employee ad conversion platform, which has helped 35,000 local businesses—spanning dozens of verticals--efficiently find, qualify and help new customers while blending advanced AI and, also, live human agents.

"Fifteen years ago our founder, Ashhad Syed, started with a mission to revolutionize customer-business communications," explained Blazeo Chief Operating Officer Cory Halbardier. "In our first few years, we built a system capable of handling hundreds of thousands of customers, sparking growth from word-of-mouth referrals.

"Today," said Blazeo's COO, "we're a bigger, better company that offers far more than chat. Our Ad Conversion Platform focuses on lead capture, lead qualification and lead closing.  This includes call center services, appointment setting, SMS enablement, market automation, sales acceleration and much more. We want our name to reflect that–Blazeo, derived from 'blaze' evokes passion, speed and energy. Like a blaze, Blazeo ignites growth. In fact, we've generated over 15 million leads for small business owners across North America, Australia and New Zealand; and we're just getting started."

Companies are expected to spend more than $380 billion on generating leads this year; and the average small business is spending more than 8 percent of their revenues on digital ads, often with low conversion rates. For example, the average landing page conversion rate across industries is less than 3 percent.

"Enter Blazeo," said Founder and CEO Ashhad Syed. "Companies, especially local businesses, are trying to maximize their marketing dollars. Most small businesses—think dentists, plumbers, HVAC experts, med spas, personal injury lawyers, carpenters, you name it—aren't digital ad experts. They're busy serving their customers, not building landing pages or answering calls at 10 PM on a Friday. But these small businesses want more customers without breaking the bank on wasted digital marketing costs.

 "Blazeo," Mr. Syed added, "makes it possible for these small companies to be responsive 24/7. That pays dividends.  In fact, 59% of the leads we generate for businesses are outside of normal business hours, when consumers aren't working."

Blazeo has expanded its services as its customers' needs have expanded, creating a large, customizable and still-growing quiver of AI- and human-powered tools and services, designed to help local businesses thrive.

• Blazeo's managed live chat empowers local businesses to convert more website visitors into leads, along with its newly expanded suite of customer experience and lead generation tools.
• Its call center services take inbound calls from existing and prospective customers; and they perform outbound calling campaigns to convert more leads to customers.
• Its appointment setting services conserve salespeople's time and demonstrably raise conversion rates.
• Its retainer signing services help law firms generate tens of millions more in revenue per week.
• And Blazeo's SMS communication platform helps SMBs take advantage of technology formerly only available to their Big Biz competitors.

Unlike other ad conversion firms, Blazeo's offers a subscription model for its customers instead of a cost-per-lead model; and, critically, it employs more than 250 live human agents to provide its customers with round-the-clock service.

"We've taken a balanced–and frankly, quite different–approach when it comes to AI and live agents," said Blazeo Founder and CEO. "AI is a powerful tool that we're leveraging every day and in new ways all the time. However, AI has limits that are overlooked within our industry and outside of it. Businesses want efficiency gains, which AI can certainly deliver but only to a point. When consumers get to the point of wanting to chat, most often they want to speak with a live person, so bots only go so far. AI technology which powers human connection creates the greatest return on investment for local service businesses who view each customer or client as important."

When a potential customer approaches one of Blazeo's clients via its platform, they have the choice to communicate with real people over whatever medium they want—text, chat or phone.

"Advanced AI in combination with live agents is our formula," said Mr. Syed. "The consequence is higher engagement and more conversions."

Keep an eye out for new major product announcements in coming months that will further fuel local business success.

Third annual sustainability survey polled U.S. consumers on sustainable shopping habits, brand credibility, electric vehicles, and more

Blue Yonder, a leader in digital supply chain transformation, today released the results of its third annual Consumer Sustainability Survey, which polled U.S.-based respondents on their habits and preferences for environmentally-friendly shopping. Sustainability remains a top priority for consumers, with 78% of respondents reporting that sustainability concerns are very or somewhat important to them when choosing to buy a product or shop at a retailer. 

“We’re encouraged to see that the majority of consumers take sustainability into account when making purchasing decisions,” said Saskia van Gendt, chief sustainability officer, Blue Yonder. “It’s especially promising that so many respondents are willing to spend more for sustainable products, given that price concerns, exacerbated by the ongoing challenge of inflation, have marked conversations around consumer behavior over the last year. Their willingness to spend more should send a clear message to brands and retailers that investing in sustainable solutions and practices is worthwhile, not only for the planet but also for maintaining consumer loyalty and trust.”

Sustainability Remains a Key Priority for Consumers, Especially Gen Z and Millennials

Survey results also showed that consumers not only have a continued interest in sustainable shopping habits, but also they are willing to pay more and opt for greener shipping options.

A healthy majority (70%) of consumers indicated that they have shopped at a retailer promoting their products as sustainable at least once or more in the past six months, which closely matches the 74% who reported doing so in 2022 and 2023. Interest in sustainability is also growing at a steady pace: 47% of consumers reported that their interest in shopping sustainably has greatly or slightly increased in the last year. That interest is underscored by consumers’ willingness to spend more for sustainable products, with 40% of respondents saying they would pay up to an additional 5%, and 25% saying they would pay an additional 10% or more.

An impressive 83% of consumers reported that they are willing to delay deliveries if an incentive is given to do so. However, this flexibility has its limits. Only 23% of respondents said they were willing to delay a delivery by a week or more. Nearly half (47%) of consumers also said they would be likely or very likely to pay more for greener shipping options such as lower carbon footprint delivery and sustainable packaging. Sentiments toward sustainable delivery differ slightly by generation¹. Millennials (85%) are the most likely to delay product delivery, followed by Gen Z (79%), Gen X (76%) and Baby Boomers (67%). More broadly, Gen Z and Millennials are most concerned with sustainability, with 85% and 84%, respectively, reporting that sustainability considerations are important to them.

Consumers Prefer Certain Products, Methods For Prioritizing Sustainability

The products consumers eat and bring into their homes are top of mind when it comes to sustainability. Over half of consumers reported that they incorporated sustainable food products (60%) and household products (55%) into their shopping habits in the past year. Respondents are also cognizant of the methods brands use to improve sustainability: 61% of consumers said reducing food or inventory waste was the most important environmental practice a retailer or brand should adopt. An equal number (61%) said using recycled content or recycled packaging.

“Consumers are looking closely at exactly how brands are executing on their sustainability goals,” said van Gendt. “With more than one-third (35%) of respondents reporting that they don’t trust brands’ sustainability claims, it’s more important than ever for companies to have full visibility into their supply chain operations so they can back up their sustainability claims with tangible data to strengthen consumer trust.”

Other Key Findings:

• Consumers Value Sustainability from Delivery Companies: Consumers are looking at sustainability throughout the entire end-to-end supply chain, including last-mile delivery. More than half (59%) of respondents reported increased purchasing sentiment toward online shopping with delivery companies who invest in electric trucking to deliver orders.
• Electric Vehicles: Consumers’ sustainable mindsets are extending to their car shopping habits as well, which is important as personalization continues to become a trend in auto manufacturing. When it comes to electric vehicles, 40% of respondents would be likely or very likely to consider purchasing one. Of those who would purchase, 55% were Millennials, 48% Gen Z, 36% Gen X, and 20% Boomers. The top concerns shared by respondents around owning an electric vehicle include range anxiety, i.e., fear of running out of battery charge (62%), limited charging infrastructure (58%), and the initial cost of the vehicle (58%). The top benefits shared by respondents influencing consumers’ interest in EVs include cost savings on fuel (55%), range on a single charge (46%), government incentives (40%), and environmental impact (40%).
• Skepticism Toward Sustainability Claims: Consumers’ enthusiasm for sustainability isn’t superficial, and they tend to think critically about brands’ claims. Nearly half (48%) of respondents said they can only “sometimes” trust a brand’s sustainability claims, depending on its message, brand reputation and history. More than one-third (35%) of respondents said they do not trust brands’ claims, citing the need for their own additional research (21%) and the belief that brands tout sustainability regardless of whether it aligns with their actions (14%).

Blue Yonder will showcase these findings and more at Shoptalk 2024 in Las Vegas from March 17 - 20. Learn more about how AI-enabled supply chains can save the world here.

Nielsen, the global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics, announced today that Anil Goel has joined Nielsen as the Chief Engineering Officer.

As Global Chief Engineering Officer, Goel will lead Nielsen's technology and engineering teams to drive product innovation and advanced technology adoption, working in close partnership with Nielsen's product teams. He will drive Nielsen's adoption of automation and AI at an accelerated rate to de-risk delivery, improve customer experience and strengthen Nielsen's products.

Goel is based in Bengaluru, India and will report to Karthik Rao, Nielsen's CEO.

"I'm thrilled to lead the innovation and adoption of advanced technologies as Nielsen's Chief Engineering Officer," said Goel. "The adoption of advanced technology is a critical component for Nielsen to become the world leader in measurement and currency for streaming, and I'm honored to lead us into the future."

"The measurement industry is evolving rapidly, and as we look to grow in streaming and lead the advance of Convergent TV as the currency in media measurement, we must strengthen our technology roadmap to align with our vision," said Karthik Rao, CEO of Nielsen. "Anil has the vision and experience to lead Nielsen's technology innovation to power a better media future for all people."

Goel is a highly accomplished technology leader with a proven track record in building technology products and infrastructure to drive revenue growth. He has over 20 years of experience leading technology teams at global organizations, including Amazon.com, where he served as Chief Technology Officer for the Customer Returns business. Most recently, Anil led the technology strategy, architecture, development and operations at Byju's Group, a global educational technology company with a vast portfolio, including the Epic! and Osmo learning platforms.

SEO Split Tester Unlocks the Potential for 20x More Testing Annually

seoClarity, an enterprise leader in AI-driven SEO technology, has enhanced its SEO Split Tester, which validates SEO hypotheses for faster execution and delivers ROI-backed business cases.

Continuing their $30 million investment in SEO innovation, this major enhancement of SEO Split Tester addresses the challenge of limited engineering resources, neverending test ideas, and no real way of assessing ROI to earn buy-in for implementation.

"Proper SEO testing is still a relatively new concept for enterprises, having only gained real traction in the last couple of years," said Mitul Gandhi, co-founder and Chief Architect of seoClarity. "Our commitment has always been to not just keep pace with industry advancements but to drive them, and feedback from our clients has been instrumental in shaping our product growth."

Launched in 2022, the SEO Split Tester's latest update introduces an intuitive interface and streamlines test setup, allowing enterprise-level SEO teams to conduct and measure robust tests with ease.

Key enhancements include:

• Test Setup and Deployment: Easily create tests, select key metrics, and make the changes on the test pages.
• Identify Test and Control Groups: Scientifically suggest highly correlated control pages for any given test scenario.
• Reporting and Analysis: Custom dashboards give insights into the progress of the test to determine statistical significance.
• Updated User Interface: An intuitive, user-friendly UI makes the SEO testing process push-button easy allowing SEOs to run 100's of tests per year.
• White Glove Support: Dedicated support team to guide you through every step of the process including access to a library of proven tests to run.

"In our experience, SEOs who prioritize testing consistently outpace their competitors," Gandhi added. "With the expansive possibilities and streamlined approach with SEO Split Tester, SEOs have to ask, 'What wouldn't I test now?'"

SEO Split Tester is available now for all seoClarity clients. Enterprise SEOs looking to elevate their testing capabilities and drive more impactful results are encouraged to reach out for a demo.

Ezoic, a leading technology-driven platform for digital creators, today announced the launch of its new program tailored for enterprise-scale digital publishers and video creators. The Enterprise program builds upon the success of Ezoic's VIP offering, marking a significant expansion of its services. This new tier introduces a comprehensive suite of exclusive services and features aimed at supporting creators in SEO and audience building, content creation, monetization, and video.

The Enterprise program grants creators access to the world's most advanced publishing technology, coupled with personalized support from the industry's foremost experts in yield optimization, search engine optimization, site speed, content creation, and video strategies. Uniquely, the program offers publishers direct access to Ezoic's engineering resources to assist with their technology developments a first in the industry.

The introduction of the Enterprise program extends Ezoic's leadership in providing advanced solutions for larger creators, facilitating their evolution from authoritative voices to global brands.

"Ezoic is thrilled to collaborate with leading brands that trust our data-driven approach to navigate the digital content landscape amid significant industry disruptions," said Dwayne Lafleur, CEO of Ezoic. "With the advent of generative AI, creators face both opportunities and challenges. They seek not only cutting-edge tools but also insights from pioneers who understand these technologies. With 14 years of experience and as an innovator in AI for digital content publishers, Ezoic, reaching over 1 billion individuals monthly, is uniquely positioned to offer the modern direction and support these creators require."

The Enterprise program offers around-the-clock support and a suite of potent new tools designed to cater to creators' needs over the next five years. "We believe enterprise creators are poised for unprecedented growth and success as the web evolves, and we are committed to helping them achieve that," Lafleur added.

This exclusive program is available to content creators generating over $1,000,000 per year from their content.

MediaGo, a deep learning-based intelligent advertising platform under the Baidu Global Business Unit, today announced an expanded partnership with GeoEdge, a global ad security and quality leader. This increased collaboration enhances malvertising protection by cracking down on threat actors and fortifying user protection across the advertising industry.

Amnon Siev, GeoEdge's CEO said, "As malvertising evolves, our security engines are tailored to detect threat actors along the advertising supply chain before they reach audiences. Through our valued partnership with MediaGo, together we're proud to prevent threat actors from exploiting the advertising infrastructure- safeguarding its partners and audiences."

MediaGo maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward malicious ads, blocking all instances of malware, malicious content, phishing, scams, fraud, and cloaking ads.

To realize this goal, MediaGo has engaged in collaboration with GeoEdge since its foundation. MediaGo has effectively implemented a comprehensive, multi-tiered ad security audit system that includes: 

• Pre-emptive landing page compliance checks: GeoEdge's tools conduct thorough scans of landing pages before ads are launched. Post-launch, MediaGo continues with routine scans, utilizing GeoEdge's technology to target and identify potential violation advertising, ensuring that ad landing pages remain safe and compliant throughout their lifecycle.
• Proprietary deep learning system: MediaGo's in-house review system, underpinned by deep learning, is trained on extensive datasets, harnessing the power of AI to accurately categorize and block prohibited items.
• 24/7 manual monitoring: MediaGo's dedicated review team constantly scrutinizes ad creatives and landing page content, certifying that all advertisements align with the stringent ad review policies.
• Advertiser qualification checks: Before advertisers onboard, MediaGo conducts a comprehensive assessment of all advertisers' credentials, preemptively reducing the likelihood of low-quality or non-compliant ads.

"The strengthened collaboration with GeoEdge brings a new, forward-looking enhancement to MediaGo's ad security review system," says Brian Mun, Director of Global Partnerships, Baidu Global Business Unit. "The health of the ad ecosystem is critical to all stakeholders and users. MediaGo is committed to elevating ad quality, safeguarding the integrity of our advertising system, and diligently working to offer media partners and consumers the optimum advertising experience."